What defibrillators have in common with a Writing Career
A powerful jolt of electricity can get a dead engine running again. A defibrillator can make the human heart beat again. Everything needs a “jumpstarter” every now and then. My writing career took a few blows these last few years and sometimes it feels like I’m down for the count. But I’m not.
Urgo in Stargate SG-1
Remember that episode of SG-1 when Urgo is influencing the team’s decisions. “Try the paddles,” he says to Teal’c. So Teal’c grabs the defibrillator paddles and moves to use them before he is stopped. Really it was a funny episode!
My agent recently gave me the news that my publisher backed out of publishing the fourth book in my series The Sword of the Dragon. I can’t say this shocked me. I know that the publishing market has been struggling. But it still comes as a disappointment and I have to reassess some things. Before I get all of you worried, the rights for In Search of Dragons have reverted to me and I will be publishing it next year. Only difference is it will release from my company, Flaming Pen Press. Neverqueen sequels will also be released under FPP (more and exciting updates coming on this soon).
I have been eager to get back onto the road with book tours. I especially miss visiting middle schools. The interaction with fans was unparalleled and the excitement and interest it generated in my books was a constant source of strength and inspiration for my writing and my writing career.
On the upside I still have my literary agent. She has all the connections necessary to sell my manuscripts to publishers. On the downside working full-time in sales combined with family life leaves very little time to get my writing done. I have plenty of projects in-the-works, but I need to get them finished.
Take it from me there is nothing like pressing onward toward living your dream. I’ve lived it a couple of times. Right now I’m on sabbatical until I can work the kinks out so that I’m back out there nonstop writing, promoting, and selling. God will open the right doors as long as I keep working at it! (-:
Question: What discouragements have made you feel like ‘throwing in the towel’ on your dreams?
Hey! I love your books! The reason I replied to this post is because I noticed a typo and thought you might want to fix it. In the title, defibrillators is spelled defribulators. FYI: I am not a spelling freak, I only know this because I am in the medical field. Keep writing! I look forward to each new book!
LOL! Yeah, no I appreciate the spell check! It’s a tricky word that one. Change made!
Hmm, I’m a bit late to the party, but I’ll post a comment anywho.
I think the biggest setback I’ve faced was the fact that I couldn’t get into Liberty University. I had planned to go there since middle school to major in zoology and it seemed that the school was looking forward to having me. But unfortunately, my family and I just couldn’t come up with the money to fly me over and pay for my tuition and books.
But it worked out well. Oregon State University accepted me and even sent me a scholarship that I had never applied for. Plus, it’s far cheaper than Liberty and OSU’s focus has always been in the sciences, unlike Liberty’s.
(Nice reference to SG1 by the way. How much of the series have you seen?)
I’ve actually seen all ten seasons of SG-1 and I own all five of Atlantis on DVD. That show had some of the best acting and writing.
Wow! Zoology is a unique choice. I ran into the same problem when I had finished highschool… colleges were too expensive. The Christian college I applied at accepted me but it was about $26k per year. I’d been working full-time so they combined by income with that of my folks and so I didn’t qualify for financial aid even though I needed it.
But God opened the doors to take another path. Everything works for good to them that love God and are called together according to his purpose!
Thanks for sharing!
I own all ten season of SG1, as well as all the movies and whatnot. Still need to watch Atlantis and Universe though.
It sucks how they calculate financial aide. And it doesn’t help that tuition prices are rising faster than the rate of inflation and the books are up-marked around 300% or something (I’ll have to find the actual statistic).
Also, dumb question time, but I think I remember seeing somewhere that Neverqueen was a prequel to Swords of the Six. Is that right?
Not a dumb question at all! Neverqueen is actually not a prequel, it is a sequel to Swords of the Six. It tells what happened along the Eiderveis River after Albino’s daughters took the baby away from the traitor and the witch. Neverqueen starts a new series that runs parallel to The Sword of the Dragon books!
My intention was for Neverqueen to be read either before Swords of the Six (for first-time fans) or after Key of Living Fire.
Btw, Atlantis is a great series… but SGU was terrible. Besides having a really broken up story, the characters were shallow, and the mood was depressing. SGU also tried to incorporate a lesbian character and a few times tried to throw traditional marriage out the window. Would not recommend it.
Ok, that explains a lot. I’m sitting here reading Neverqueen and going “…but didn’t that happen…but….what?” Thanks for the answer.
I remember a few episodes of SGU when I first tried to watch it. I don’t remember much about except for there was one really mean guy and somewhere Richard Dean Anderson got involved. I’ll take your advice and go ahead and skip it then.